Henry Coe: Kelly Lake & Pacheco Falls - April 2017

April 14-16, 2017. California Coast Range. A two-night backpacking trip in and out from the Hunting Hollow Trailhead near Gilroy. In to Kelly Lake on the 14th via a long route over Willson Peak to see the flowers on the amazing serpentine outcrop up there. On the 15th, a big looping dayhike to Pacheco Falls, Pacheco Camp, and Coit Lake. Then back to Hunting Hollow on the 16th via Grizzly Gulch and the Gilroy Hot Springs road. Much of this trip overlaps with one I took in 2009 (not posted here), but I didn't visit Pacheco Falls then. I was last there in 1985. Getting back was long overdue, especially given an alluring picture set of the upper falls sitting in my old 1985 photo album. (It's here).

Friday, April 14. On the 1800' climb from the trailhead to Willson Peak. The trees were denser lower down, but after a little climbing I was in grassy oak savannah. Mostly deciduous blue or black oaks, with occasional live oaks in the mix. A few flowers added to all this lush grass, some familiar (poppies, clarkias, phacelia, fiddlenecks, violets), some less so...

Crepis sp., either C. capillaris (smooth hawksbeard) or C. vesicaria subsp. taraxacifolia (beaked hawksbeard). The Jepson key calls out the seeds as the discriminating element and the descriptions are close. C. capillaris (only) appears on a Pine Mountain Association checklist but the bloom time suggests the other. Non-native, but the butterfly doesn't seem to mind.

Castilleja attenuata (valley tassels). One of the least showy of the "owl's clovers".

The broad view down to Hunting Hollow from about 3/4 of the way up Willson Peak. The upper Santa Clara Valley is behind the first ridge. In the *very* faint distance, maybe the Monterey Peninsula.

The top. The Willson Peak serpentine "outcrop" is really the tailings of a not-very-successful Civil War era copper mine. It's still something of a mess. But this odd rock can grow flowers, especially at the margins or away from the worst of the gravel.

Poppies and goldfields.

Add cream cups, yellow pincushion, and blow wives.

Streptanthus glandulosus (bristly jewel flower). I've only seen these once before, also on serpentine. The wider basal leaves have already dried up.

Achyrachaena mollis (blow wives). The big puffs are bunches of seeds. The actual flowers barely open. And while they look weedy, sort of like dandelions, these are native.

Phacelia distans (common phacelia). These tended to grow alone.

Chaenactis glabriuscula (yellow pincushion).

Heading down from Willson Peak toward Grizzly Gulch and Tule Pond, there were more flowers in the grass. Here, goldfields (the sheet of yellow), and butter-and-eggs (the lighter yellow in with the goldfields), and California buttercup (the scattered yellows in the green grass).

Viola pedunculata (Johnny-jump-up).

Castilleja densiflora (dense flower owl's clover). I think. It's not hairy and thread-leaved so it's not C. exserta. The styles poking out say it's not C. brevistyla or attunata. Too big for attenuata too. Those are the only "owl's clovers" here. BUT Jepson says leaf width is < 3mm and these are more.

Castilleja exserta (purple owl's clover) for comparison. This was from farther on today, up on Wasno Ridge. Very hairy. Thread-like leaves. Pink too, but Castilleja densiflora can be pinker than in the previous pictures.

Plectritis macrocera (white plectritis). Just of little puff of white: the whole inflorescence is only about an inch high. A Valerian relative.